Rising Shards

“So I’ll start, since Stella had the first question.” I said. “Tell us a bit about yourself, Dr. Diast.”

“If this is too much for you Evy, just say so,” Stella said.

“You know what?” Diast said. She took a deep breath, raising her nose, and Stella flinched as though Dr. Diast was about to go rage mode on the whole nice pizza dinner, but she just had a confident look when she lowered her head. “I think I can handle this just fine, Stel. I’m Dr. Evy Diast, I think I’m a pretty fantastic Cani doctor, and comparably good at teaching at Rising Shards. I’m a big nerd for the Cani biological sciences in general, I like dramas on TV but I’m a bigger fan of like, anime TV wise. Books I’ll do whatever but it’s mostly. Manga. I’m a big nerd, I know. Oh, and my Cani power’s metal control.”

Oka and I nodded at each other, immediately having way too much fun with our newfound authority.

“How did you meet the Faleur you are currently romantically engaged with?” Oka asked.

“Well, when Zeta’s fangs came in, her big sister brought her to the hospital, and that’s where we met.” Dr. Diast said.

“I can verify that one.” I said. “Her story checks out.”

“I want a fun question next!” Oka said. “That one was too quick.”

“Do you want me to go into more detail about how we met?” Dr. Diast said.

“No, I got it,” Oka said. She looked at the notebook.

“You wanna take the next one, too?” I asked.

“Yeah, if that’s…alright with you?” Oka said. She bobbed back and forth a bit on her chair.

“Of course! I like how pumped up you are right now.” I said.

“Alright!” Oka said. She pointed at Dr. Diast. “Talk about a challenge you overcame together.”

“Hmm,” Diast said. “Well, we had a tough time picking the movie we were gonna see tonight. But then we worked it out. Stella wanted a sappy romcom, and I wanted this badass movie.”

“Excuse me, you wanted the sappy romcom.” Stella said. “I wanted to see the Girl Who Did a Thing Part Two: The Girl Who Didn’t Do a Thing. Which is actually badass.”

“Alright, you got me, I wanted to seem cooler to them,” Diast said. “I haven’t finished the second Girl Who Did a Thing book yet! I didn’t want to get spoiled by the adaptation before I read.”

“That’s fair,” Stella said. “We agreed that was fair, and we picked a different movie from those prior two options entirely, one about like…I didn’t see the trailer actually. We kind of picked it on a whim.”

“I think it’s a murder mystery?” Diast asked. “We’re both going in not knowing this one, it could suck but we’ll be together for it so that’s fun.”

“I feel like picking a movie isn’t really in the spirit of a challenge, you know?” I said.

“I agree.” Oka said. “The jury demands a better challenge!”

“Fine, fine,” Diast said. “Hmm, let’s see…maybe. Nah, not that one. How about, it was really tricky figuring out which of our furniture we had two of to keep.”

“No it wasn’t,” Stella said. She did the super deep laugh she only did when she was really happy about something. “My bed was newer, so we kept that one. And since we had two couches, we let Zeta keep hers downstairs. Why do you keep lying to them, Evy?” She kept laughing, which started to make Dr. Diast laugh.

“I’m trying to come up with a good challenge here!” Diast said. “Uh, when that part of the sink broke last week and I knew how to fix it, but I didn’t know if the landlord would let us, so you called them for me. That was a challenge we definitely overcame together. That good enough for you two?”

“Depends,” Oka said. “Stella, is Dr. Diast lying to us again to try and seem cooler?”

“No, that one’s true,” Stella said.

“Then I suppose we’ll move onto the next one.” I said. Oka tapped where we left off on the paper. “This one says…is there anything about the Faleur in question you’d change?”

“Oh, tons,” Dr. Diast said. “Stella’s a mess, you know? I’m an ‘I can fix her’ type, so I got some plans in place. You’re gonna see a whole new, Dr. Evy Diast influenced Stella Faleur in the coming weeks. I got. So many things I want to change, your minds will be blown. Just top to bottom things I want to change. I’m thinking of starting with like robot spider legs that she’ll wear all the time now. And like, solely pirate clothes from now on? I wish she’d wear pirate clothes more, to the point she’s wearing them all the time…”

As Dr. Diast went on and on with the bit, Stella just laughed harder and harder, to the point she had to shove her pizza plate forward so she could put her head down on the table and pound her fists. She was wheezing. Oka and I watched in disbelief. It took the two a while to recover from their laughing fit.

“I dunno if that was in the spirit of the question, but I feel like if we ask it again you two will just get the giggles together again.” Oka said. “So…we’ll say partial credit for that?” I nodded. “Partial credit for that.”

“I’ll try to take the next one more seriously,” Dr. Diast said as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Oka took hers seriously.” I said.

“Wait, alright, I got one,” Dr. Diast said.

“Hm?” Stella asked, also wiping her own eyes.

“I wish Stella wouldn’t beat herself up so much,” Dr. Diast said. “Because she’s really amazing, and she’s gone through so much, and she’s brave and strong and. She deserves the world, so I wish she wouldn’t be harsh on herself for things that are out of her control.”

Stella had her hands covering her mouth and nose almost as soon as Dr. Diast started talking, with her laughing tears replaced with overwhelmed ones.

“I didn’t, wanna do,” Stella wheezed. “The exact same thing Zeta did, but.”

Dr. Diast rubbed Stella’s shoulders before pulling her close. “Nothing wrong with the Faleur sisters having similar reactions.”

“Right, yeah,” Stella said. “Everyone eat their pizza for a sec, I need a minute.”

I needed that break as well. Oka saying such kind things about me got me really emotional, but hearing Dr. Diast be so supportive of Stella hit my emotions in a different way. I had seen Stella be harsh on herself plenty over the years, so I’m glad she had Dr. Diast to hear that from because I wouldn’t have been able to phrase that so well. Once pizza was eaten for a sec, we got back to the questioning.

“If you could take the Faleur in question anywhere in the world, where would you go?” Oka asked.

“Well, she seemed pretty hyped about Bard Street a bit ago,” Dr. Diast said. “I wouldn’t be opposed to our first vacation together being there.”

“Alright, last one,” I said. “Does the Faleur in question make you happy?”

“One hundred percent.” Dr. Diast answered. Stella needed another eat pizza break after that, even if the food was mostly gone at this point.

“I think we gotta give it to em, Zeta.” Oka said.

“Fine, you two lovebirds pass your test.” I said. “Whatever the test is.”

“Faleur tradition!” Stella said, dabbing a fresh napkin at her red and watery eyes. “Faleur family tradition.”

“Right, right.” I said.

Once we finished up and Stella and Diast paid for dinner, they left for their movie, leaving Oka and I some time to ourselves for our mall date.